Camera Body

For those applications where you just can’t have too much resolution, the new Hasselblad H6D-400C MS may be just the thing. It uses the company’s 100MP sensor coupled with a body that can shift the sensor and lens mount tiny amounts to improve image quality and create a super-resolution image of 400MP. You can read more about it in the piece I wrote for Extremetech.com, where I contrast it to Phase One's new Trichromatic technology.

I’ve had a Nikon D850 for a few weeks now, and been able to use it in a variety of situations, and with a variety of lenses. For the TL;DR crowd the short answer is that it’s an amazing camera and produces great images. In my case, I’m very happy to have upgraded from my Nikon D810 (which I sold to recover about 1/2 the cost of the D850), although that upgrade isn’t for everyone, so let’s discusses the pros and cons.

The Nikon D850 is official. It may be the very best DSLR ever built. The $3300 price tag is a really-good deal given all the features it packs, including 45+MP, 7/9 fps, 4K video, 8K timelapse, focus peaking, and lots more:  It's now available for pre-order at B&H, with shipments beginning on Thursday, September 7th.

Like almost every pro Nikon shooter, I’m eagerly awaiting the new Nikon D850. In the meantime, I needed an updated backup camera for my Nikon D810. I wanted one good enough to use for “pro” work, but small and light enough that I could easily carry it in a messenger bag with my drone for field work. I’d already shot with the Nikon D500 and Nikon D750, which are both excellent cameras, but decided to be a little more adventurous and purchase the newer Nikon D7500, that fits many of the features of the Nikon D500 into a smaller, less-expensive, package.

If you aren’t hopelessly addicted to Nikon or Canon, and don’t need the massive array of lenses and accessories they offer, then Sony is giving you one more big reason to dump your DSLR and go mirrorless. The Alpha a9 Mirrorless Digital Camera is a spectacular performance machine, capable of 20fps shooting with Autofocus, for example. I’ll be writing more about it (and perhaps giving one a field test) in the coming weeks and months, but wanted to make sure eager beavers got in on the first pre-orders. You can put your order in for a Sony Alpha a9 for $4500 at B&H – with shipments expected to start May 25th.

Right from the first look the Fujifilm X-Pro2 screams retro, and reminds one of a Leica. Its square-shaped, solid-metal, body, with large control dials on top is a definite throwback. At first blush, so is the Rangefinder (which under the hood turns out to be a lot more than that). As with Leica, a carefully-curated selection of high-performance lenses complement the camera itself. The design may be retro, and a few of the features, but the Fuji X-Pro 2 packs a punch when it comes to the latest technology, features, and premium image quality. You won't be sacrificing anything in those areas by moving to one.

A common theme in compact cameras is the tradeoff between zoom range and image quality. The very top rated Sony RX100 V (our article) has the best image quality, but a small zoom range of 24-70mm. The Canon G5 X (full review) stretches that to 24-100mm, but that’s not much of a gain. On the other extreme, the Sony RX10 III (full review) provides both an amazing zoom and great image quality, but is much larger and more expensive. Enter the Lumix ZS100. It is larger than the RX100 or Canon G series, but not by a huge amount. In exchange it offers a larger, 25-250mm, zoom range but doesn’t trade off much in image quality.

After teasing us at CES with impressive 360-degree 4K video from its action camera prototypes, Nikon has finally announced the details of the three models in its KeyMission family of action cameras. Unlike Nikon’s under-performing entries in the mirrorless market, that never took off, the KeyMission cameras are designed to deliver state-of-the-art performance at very reasonable prices – pitting them squarely against the slow-to-ship Samsung Gear 360 and the incumbent line of GoPros, now updated with the new Hero 5.

Both Nikon and Canon have been late to the game, and half-hearted, in their attempts to enter the mirrorless market – content up until now to protect their DSLR offerings. However, the writing is on the wall, and with the advent of phase-detect pixels and high-resolution EVFs, mirrorless is poised to take over even more of the traditional DSLR market. With the Canon EOS M5 Canon seems to have finally decided to produce a state-of-the-art mirrorless offering, able to go head to head with its own DSLRs. A 24MP APS-C model, capable of 9 fps, and sporting a 2.36MP EVF and dual pixel AF, it will be worth considering for anyone not completely addicted to an optical viewfinder.

In a major upgrade to its “mid-size” pro DSLR, Canon has pushed DSLR performance further with its new Canon 5D Mark IV. The 30.4MP full-frame camera can shoot at 7 fps for up to 21 frames in RAW, and an unlimited number when recording JPEG. 61 AF points should give it excellent Autofocus performance. The addition of 4K video @ 30 fps (up to 30 minute clips) is also a nice, modernizing, feature. Startup time is an impressive .1 seconds, with a 58 millisecond shutter lag. At 1.76 pounds, it fits squarely into the “mid-range” of pro DSLRs, a popular category for those who don’t want to carry (or pay for) the 3 pound monster flagship models.

The power of the Canon 5D Mark IV comes at a price. You can pre-order one for $4,600 from B&H, with the cameras expected to start shipping on September 8th.

If you’ve been considering giving up on DSLRs and shifting to a smaller, possibly-lower-cost mirrorless camera, Nikon wants to make you think again. The new Nikon D3400 builds on the image quality of Nikon’s DSLRs and adds some intriguing usability features – like SnapBridge which should make image sharing with your mobile device much easier. At 5 fps, it should have enough performance for most. And you can get it in a kit with Nikon’s new 18-55mm VR lens for $650 when it ships in September.

Few cameras have had a more loyal following than the Nikon D300 (and predecessor Nikon D200). For those who wanted a pro-quality Nikon without moving to the size and expense of full-frame, they represented an excellent combination of features at a reasonable price. However, as the years have gone by, the tech in those cameras has been left in the dust. Many owners have been forced to move either “down” to a more consumer-oriented, but newer, model like the Nikon D7200, or up to a larger, more-expensive, model like the Nikon D750. No longer. I shot almost exclusively in Alaska for two weeks with a Nikon D500, and loved it. It is easy to hold, fun to use, and took photos that are as high quality as I’ve ever seen from a 21MP sensor.

The appeal of a camera you can always have with you is obvious. For an increasing number of people that’s their smartphone. But if you want to have something with a bigger sensor and a zoom lens, a compact point-and-shoot is the way to go. That creates something of a Goldilocks problem – the cheap, small ones aren’t much better than a phone, and the high-end ones don’t fit in a pocket. Canon has done a good job over the years with its S series in finding a middle ground – reasonable sensor, good features, and Raw capability. I’ve been shooting with the newest version, rebranded as the Canon G9 X, and have been impressed by the upgrade in image quality, while learning to like, or at least live with, the new Touchscreen-centric interface…

No one like carrying a lot of camera gear, or changing lenses. But for many of us it is a necessary evil to get the shots we want. But the question I get asked most is "I want a camera that does it all, but I don't want to carry several lenses or a big backpack or tripod, what should I buy?" The new Sony RX10 III is an excellent answer. With a 1-inch-format 20MP sensor, and a 24-600mm super-zoom lens from Zeiss, it takes remarkably good images for an all-in-one camera, and it does it across a massive focal length range. The big upgrade from the Mark II is an increase in zoom range from 200mm to 600mm at the long end (resulting in a slightly larger, and more-expensive, camera).

I've spent a lot more time shooting with the new Sony a6300 since my first look article, and the experience has reinforced my impressions -- both pro and con. On the pro side, the speed and image quality is really amazing. I covered multiple events at Nvidia's tech conference, in a variety of awful lighting conditions, and the camera performed flawlessly at ISOs up to 3200 (where I had Auto ISO set to top out). However, even after some customization of the interface, I found the controls inefficient, especially in dark rooms.